The most technically challenging moment was when I first took over the backup and disaster recovery product line at SmartX.

When the product manager sent me a requirements document filled with over 40 pages of jargon, I didn't know where to start. On one hand, I know little about backup and disaster recovery features, and on the other hand, the complexity of backup and replication features was quite high.

After reviewing the PRD, I still didn't fully understand the requirements for "asynchronous replication," so I started with research. I discussed the actual needs of our clients and the problems they wanted to solve with the product manager, engineers, and sales. At the same time, I started researching similar products in the market, reading their documentation, and using their demos. Gradually, I understood the requirements, and more importantly, I knew what problems our clients wanted to solve.

Then I began the cycle: making prototypes → discuss for feedback with team members → modifying the prototype, ultimately I addressed the final design, and started the UI design and wrote UI specs.

While designing MapTable, as the only designer in the team without a product manager, I took on the entire process of product research, defining the product direction, writing PRD, concept design, prototyping, UI design, collecting user feedback, adapting for mobile, and iterative optimization, ultimately we launched the product.

The reason is that I prefer the atmosphere of working at a startup, where everyone can take on more responsibility, and we all work together towards a goal. I can do anything wherever the team needs me, and during this process also stimulates my potential and pushes me to learn more. I enjoy the feeling of growing quickly with the team, even though many times startups end in failure; but the experience is always unforgettable.

When I transitioned from a product manager to a designer, there was an instance where I missed an corner case in the UI design I delivered. It went unnoticed during testing but was encountered by our users. This has caused our entire team to work overtime to revise the issues, and I felt terrible about it.

I feel sorry about causing trouble for my team members, since then, I have made it a point to double-check every design detail I deliver.

Rigor.

While working at SmartX, since we design professional enterprise products, our output also needs to maintain professionalism. Therefore, we have established strict guidelines, such as copywriting guidelines, translation guidelines, and we need to clearly define the handling of various exceptional and corner cases in the UI specs, considering as many situations that users might encounter as possible.

While still working at SmartX, we were already a medium-sized company (over 400 people) , yet we still used an inefficient waterfall communication method. Where the CEO and project owner would communicated first, then passed the requirements to designers. This process led to a lot of time-wasting and misunderstandings.

So after designing 2 days for the logo of SmartX’s new brand "Sunmao Enterprise Cloud", I was told that we actually didn't need a logo, I realized maybe it’s time to leave. This is also why I prefer startups that allow for efficient communication and collaboration.

During the development of the MapTable project, we encountered conflicts between Teamwork and Urgency. At that time, we were just a small team of fewer than 10 people, but we wanted to create a "perfect" product, trying to add as much features as possible. As a result, after a year into the project, we still hadn't launched the product. We were still optimizing and adding features. Based on the situation, I didn't know when we would actually deliver the product to users and gather feedback from them. I felt that the features we were planning were based on our own assumptions, and we needed to get users onboarding the product quickly to validate those assumptions.

So, I came up with this issue in a team standup meeting, let every team members to discuss the necessity of continuing to refine the product. Everyone agreed to stop adding features and launch as soon as possible (everyone is also feeling exhausted about the delayed launch of a product.). Then I prioritized all the unfinished features, focusing on core features and bug fixes, while scheduling lower-priority features for the next version (later realizing that some features were not of interest to users). We finally shipped the product within a month.

Remote work is my ideal lifestyle. I have been working remotely for the past six years and have become proficient in asynchronous communication skills. I have collaborated with distributed teams across time zones, and also served overseas clients on SaaS and AI products.

I understand that Oxide requires at least four hours of overlap with Pacific Time during workdays. Currently I’m based in Yunnan, China. But I can adjust my working hours to meet this requirement.

The most technically challenging moment was when I first took over the backup and disaster recovery product line at SmartX.

When the product manager sent me a requirements document filled with over 40 pages of jargon, I didn't know where to start. On one hand, I know little about backup and disaster recovery features, and on the other hand, the complexity of backup and replication features was quite high.

After reviewing the PRD, I still didn't fully understand the requirements for "asynchronous replication," so I started with research. I discussed the actual needs of our clients and the problems they wanted to solve with the product manager, engineers, and sales. At the same time, I started researching similar products in the market, reading their documentation, and using their demos. Gradually, I understood the requirements, and more importantly, I knew what problems our clients wanted to solve.

Then I began the cycle: making prototypes → discuss for feedback with team members → modifying the prototype, ultimately I addressed the final design, and started the UI design and wrote UI specs.

While designing MapTable, as the only designer in the team without a product manager, I took on the entire process of product research, defining the product direction, writing PRD, concept design, prototyping, UI design, collecting user feedback, adapting for mobile, and iterative optimization, ultimately we launched the product.

The reason is that I prefer the atmosphere of working at a startup, where everyone can take on more responsibility, and we all work together towards a goal. I can do anything wherever the team needs me, and during this process also stimulates my potential and pushes me to learn more. I enjoy the feeling of growing quickly with the team, even though many times startups end in failure; but the experience is always unforgettable.

When I transitioned from a product manager to a designer, there was an instance where I missed an corner case in the UI design I delivered. It went unnoticed during testing but was encountered by our users. This has caused our entire team to work overtime to revise the issues, and I felt terrible about it.

I feel sorry about causing trouble for my team members, since then, I have made it a point to double-check every design detail I deliver.

Rigor.

While working at SmartX, since we design professional enterprise products, our output also needs to maintain professionalism. Therefore, we have established strict guidelines, such as copywriting guidelines, translation guidelines, and we need to clearly define the handling of various exceptional and corner cases in the UI specs, considering as many situations that users might encounter as possible.

While still working at SmartX, we were already a medium-sized company (over 400 people) , yet we still used an inefficient waterfall communication method. Where the CEO and project owner would communicated first, then passed the requirements to designers. This process led to a lot of time-wasting and misunderstandings.

So after designing 2 days for the logo of SmartX’s new brand "Sunmao Enterprise Cloud", I was told that we actually didn't need a logo, I realized maybe it’s time to leave. This is also why I prefer startups that allow for efficient communication and collaboration.

During the development of the MapTable project, we encountered conflicts between Teamwork and Urgency. At that time, we were just a small team of fewer than 10 people, but we wanted to create a "perfect" product, trying to add as much features as possible. As a result, after a year into the project, we still hadn't launched the product. We were still optimizing and adding features. Based on the situation, I didn't know when we would actually deliver the product to users and gather feedback from them. I felt that the features we were planning were based on our own assumptions, and we needed to get users onboarding the product quickly to validate those assumptions.

So, I came up with this issue in a team standup meeting, let every team members to discuss the necessity of continuing to refine the product. Everyone agreed to stop adding features and launch as soon as possible (everyone is also feeling exhausted about the delayed launch of a product.). Then I prioritized all the unfinished features, focusing on core features and bug fixes, while scheduling lower-priority features for the next version (later realizing that some features were not of interest to users). We finally shipped the product within a month.

Remote work is my ideal lifestyle. I have been working remotely for the past six years and have become proficient in asynchronous communication skills. I have collaborated with distributed teams across time zones, and also served overseas clients on SaaS and AI products.

I understand that Oxide requires at least four hours of overlap with Pacific Time during workdays. Currently I’m based in Yunnan, China. But I can adjust my working hours to meet this requirement.